Iron Baby

At a family reunion, Uncle John told me a story about my childhood that I hadn’t heard before. It was the first time he had ever met me and I was about a year and a half old. It was in California and we were all outside most of the time. My brother was playing with his buddies, a group of neighborhood youngsters who ran free on the block. Confined to my playpen, I was desperate to join them as they moved further and further away. The playpen was one of the old kinds with a hardboard floor divided in half so that it could be folded up and stored. Realizing this, I managed to move the padding aside, lift up the flooring, and by holding onto the sides, walked my way down the street, cage and all, to join the group. To this day I still have that determination - as well as the biceps.